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Israeli Foreign Minister Calls on Olmert to Resign

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that she told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that resignation would be the right thing for him to do after a government report criticized his actions in the war last summer.Credit
Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

JERUSALEM, May 2 — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s deputy called on him to resign on Wednesday after a harshly critical government report about his management of Israel’s war against Hezbollah last summer.

The deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, met with Mr. Olmert in his office, and “told him that resignation would be the right thing for him to do,” she said at a news conference in her office. She said that she would be a candidate within the Kadima Party to replace him as prime minister.

“Now is the time to restore the public’s trust in government,” Ms. Livni said.

But she insisted that she would not organize an effort to oust him and that she did not intend to resign herself, but would do the best she could to fix the flaws in governance that the report laid bare.

On Wednesday night, however, it appeared that Mr. Olmert would hang on, with party leaders giving him some months until the final report is released this summer, according to Channel 2 news.

Shimon Peres, 83, a deputy prime minister, emerged from the meeting of Kadima Party legislators to say that Mr. Olmert had their “unprecedented support,” an odd phrasing, given the circumstances.

Mr. Olmert said that he would not quit, and his aides suggested that Ms. Livni had violated the principle of collective government and that she should resign. Some suggested that Mr. Olmert would fire her, but others said that might only make her more popular. One Olmert aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the difficult political situation, said that Ms. Livni had hoped Mr. Olmert would fire her, but that instead he would “leave her out to dry.”

A large demonstration against Mr. Olmert is planned for Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, and in opinion polls, two-thirds of those asked say they want Mr. Olmert to go.

Ms. Livni, 48, is a popular but austere figure, and her statement was hardly a clarion call to rebellion. Mr. Olmert must make his own decision, she said, But her defection was the biggest blow so far to his chances of hanging on to office, and it lays down a clear marker that she will fight to replace him inside the party.

Mr. Olmert said at a meeting of Kadima legislators, “I am in a personally uncomfortable position, but I will not shirk my responsibility and will fix all the mistakes,” according to Israel Radio. “Everyone’s energy levels are low, and if we spend them on arguments we will be left with no energy to implement the conclusions” of the report, prepared by a government-appointed commission led by a retired judge, Eliyahu Winograd.

“I am not in an easy situation, but I am past 60, and I have seen many things in my life,” Mr. Olmert said. “I have learned never to turn away from responsibility, and when I see the people in this room I am confident we can continue to lead Israel.”

Earlier, Mr. Olmert had told a cabinet meeting, “To all those who are in haste in order to take advantage of the report for political profit, I tell them not to be hasty.”

Ms. Livni said that she fully supported the decision to go to war, but that Mr. Olmert quickly isolated her and the Foreign Ministry, as the commission noted. She said she had voted against an escalation of the war, and the commission praised her for trying to shape a diplomatic solution in the first days of the conflict.

Kadima was set up by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he, Mr. Olmert, Ms. Livni and others broke away from the Likud Party. Mr. Sharon essentially hand-picked the candidates before his incapacitating stroke in January 2005, and the party lacks detailed rules. The party leader, now Mr. Olmert, cannot be ousted, and he is clearly not prepared to go, months before the final part of the Winograd commission is completed.

If he does resign, there will not be new elections. The country’s acting president, Dalia Itzik, would have a week to consult with Parliament and name a new legislator — presumably a member of Kadima, the largest party, to form the next government.

It is not a given that Kadima would choose Ms. Livni to replace Mr. Olmert. Ms. Livni herself said Wednesday that the next Kadima leader should be chosen through a democratic primary process in the party, and that she would compete for the post. But there are other figures who would also run, including Mr. Peres; the former defense minister, Shaul Mofaz; and Meir Sheetrit, another former Likud figure.

It is also not clear that a new prime minister would be able to hold together the same coalition that Mr. Olmert has built, giving the government a solid parliamentary majority. A new Labor Party leader, expected to be chosen this month, may decide to leave the coalition.

The man Mr. Sharon chose as chairman of the party’s parliamentary group, Avigdor Itzhaki, resigned Wednesday after also calling for Mr. Olmert to quit and trying to line up Kadima legislators to oppose him. Mr. Itzhaki was replaced by Tzachi Hanegbi, who has also questioned Mr. Olmert’s ability to lead.

The commission said that Mr. Olmert had “made up his mind hastily” to begin the campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas last July and accused him of “a serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence.”

His declared aims in going to war, to free two soldiers seized by Hezbollah and to crush the militant group, were “overly ambitious and impossible to achieve,” the commission said.

In Lebanon, the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said that he “respects” Israel for its ability to concede failure in the war. “I will not gloat,” he told an audience at a book fair in Beirut. “It is worthy of respect that an investigative commission appointed by Olmert condemns him,” Sheik Nasrallah said, praising the commission for having “finally and officially decided the issue of victory and defeat.”

After the war, Sheik Nasrallah said that if he had known how Israel would retaliate, he would not have ordered the raid to seize the Israeli soldiers, who remain captive.

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Israeli Foreign Minister Says She Asked Olmert to Resign. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe